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Privacy, data security, piracy. They are all major issues that affect content producers, creatives and startups. PrivacyNet presents compelling sources and the latest about developments in these fields. It is produced by Gordon Platt, an attorney, a former Emmy Award winning investigative journalist and founder of Gotham Media, a content marketing and strategic communications company.

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Another Million Milestone for DMCA Insanity

In our last visit to ludicrous world of DMCA takedowns, we talked about the insanity of repeating the same action and expecting different results. That was last September when takedowns hit the 100 million mark. Fast forward just nine months and we have to track back down the same insane path once again, as the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and British Phonographic Institute (BPI) report that they have passed the 200 million mark.

100 million new requests to remove infringing links in under one year… things are getting even crazier, aren’t they?

The figure is almost intangible, but it’s far from unexpected. We know by now that these takedown requests are generally ineffective, so why does the system persist? Because creators and rights holders simply have no other recourse to protect their works against piracy.

You can be certain that no creative talent – or those who manage and protect them – want to spend their valuable time filing endless DMCA removal requests, only to see the same infringing content pop up again a few days later — or have the Google-backed Chilling Effects site point pirates in the right direction.

In fact, it’s Google that is at the center of this debate over how we move listeners from piracy to legitimate sites. With its slow movement on penalizing illegal file-sharing, torrent and streaming sites, the world’s largest search engine continues to present users with options that infringe copyright. Serving up these links, often above legitimate channels, bypasses the otherwise frustrating experience of finding paid content for free.

Most frustratingly, Google has shown it can act decisively to influence search results for consumers, when the occasion suits it. Ongoing antitrust allegations in Europe and a suspiciously dropped case along the same lines here at home prove this much. Even with the hypocrisy of promoting its own services above others, despite years of saying its search results are staunchly neutral, at least presenting consumers with the Play store product listings would be promoting a legitimate offering. By continuing to list piracy sites in its search results, Google propagates the current system and ensures that very little will change in the foreseeable future.

David Newhoff flagged this essential futility of DMCA takedown requests two years ago, when the figure stood at one-tenth of the figure it is now. An article quote equates the process to “using a bucket to deal with an ocean of illegal downloading,” and the analogy holds true even after all this time forcing creators to play whack-a-mole with infringing content links.

200 million requests later, it feels like we’re using a thimble to handle that ocean, as pirates fill their buckets – and line their pockets – with unlicensed content. Isn’t it about time those who can fundamentally influence the situation, like Google and our lawmakers in government, take definitive action to bail out creators?